Tory MP claims the UK has been tickled pink by ‘pink’ passports

(Photo by illustration by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A Tory MP has claimed that the UK has been “humiliated” by the adoption of “pink” passports.

Since Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, some nationalist campaigners have been urging the government to “restore” the country’s blue passports, which were phased out in 1988 in favour of the EU standard colour of burgundy.
The government is reportedly planning on spending £500 million redesigning its passports after Brexit, with reports that the blue colour could be returning.

It couldn’t come soon enough for Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, who claims the country has been “humiliated” by having a “pink” passport.

Tory MP Andrew Rosindell.

He told Press Association: “Our British identity was slowly but surely being submerged into an artificial European one that most Brits felt increasingly unhappy about.
“The humiliation of having a pink European Union passport will now soon be over and the United Kingdom nationals can once again feel pride and self-confidence in their own nationality when travelling, just as the Swiss and Americans can do.
“National identity matters and there is no better way of demonstrating this today than by bringing back this much-loved national symbol.”

Naturally, the internet seized upon two parts of his claims – that the dark burgundy colour of passports is somehow “pink”, and that having a “pink” passport is in some way humiliating for such a masculine figure.

What a pink passport would actually look like.

In response to the comments, a petition has since been set up on the Parliament website calling for passports to be turned a shade of hot pink after Brexit.
Mr Rosindell’s natural masculine aversion to pink may go some way to explaining his stances on LGBT rights, having voted against same-sex marriage, civil partnerships, same-sex adoption, the Equality Act and repealing Section 28.